I didn’t have the social grace to navigate the treacherous terrain of the awkward early teenage years, as someone who spent his elementary school years talking about Pokemon and playing Gamecube instead of learning how to talk to people. I was your average middle-school outcast, and I needed something to provide an escape from the apathy I felt towards nearly everything. Not too long ago, after all, I was part of the target demographic.
I think I have a pretty good idea of why the album sold so well and continues to fly off the shelves. Everyone went home happy, despite the seeming lack of musical content needed to justify the album’s RIAA certification. Mothers, noticing the conspicuous lack of the devastating “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” sticker, were happy to purchase the album for their kids. Teenagers blasted the singles on the radio. Certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (500,000 units sold) within five weeks of its release, the album went on to sell approximately 100,000 copies every week for years after its release, eventually becoming one of only dozens of albums ever certified diamond by the RIAA (10 million units sold).
A review from British music magazine NME cites the band’s attempt at an “eclectic” sound “as reflective of the half-measures which permeate this Arizona quintet's debut album.” This excellent summary of the album leads to one essential question, though: why did it sell so well?īecause sell it did. What’s more, there’s an omnipresent lack of creativity which mires the album in the muck of the nu-metal explosion of the early 2000s, seemingly nothing separating it from the rest of the distortion-laden bands of Linkin Park’s ilk. The lyrics aren’t particularly impressive, either - they tend to deal vaguely with generic themes such as paranoia, fighting back against society, love lost, and the like. The song structures are incredibly cookie-cutter, generally opting for the standard nu-metal and rap-metal formulae of rapping, singing, and screaming simple patterns over distorted power chords. Objectively, Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory is not a very good album. Hey, we’re only a week late with this review and the album’s already sold a million copies.Įverything’s peachy in the land of major label rock.Review Summary: An album that changed and empowered a generation of teenagers. But, unlike its debut, it has some very pretty packaging and a CD-ROM section, if that’s the sorta thing which floats your rubber duck. And, like their debut, it also has its token instrumental filler track, and it has its ‘heartfelt epic’ song as the last track. It becomes obvious that the second half of the album is the band growing up a bit and trying something new without completely alienating their audience. This is more of the direction I expected ‘Meteora’ to take – fucked up beats with more experimental Aphex washing machine-music bleeps and less of the dire “I won’t waste myself on yooooooouuu!!!” lyrics (sample lyric from ‘From The Inside’). Mind you, it does sound a bit like ‘Boys Of Summer’.Īnother track sticking out like a sore thumb is ‘Nobody’s Listening’, a twisted hip-hop tune. They ditch the quiet/loud, rap/scream formula and turn down the guitars, but still end up with something worthy of a mosh… albeit with less pushing and shoving. ‘Breaking The Habit’ stands head and shoulders over the rest, showcasing a more, gulp, mature sound. There ain’t quite anything to match the classic chunky riff on ‘One Step Closer’. The single ‘Somewhere I Belong’ is Linkin Park by numbers, while ‘Faint’ and pretty much anything else here is, well, the same. Ladies and gents, welcome to ‘Hybrid Theory Part 2’.įirst half of the album sticks to the same formula as before. ‘Hybrid Theory’ has sold millions, so why should ‘Meteora’ be any different? Unfortunately, there’s the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and that’s exactly what’s happened here. When they tried to delve into the more experimental side of their influences (it’s no secret they’re Aphex Twin fans), it was pretty laughable, but that’s something they could’ve got better at or tried to use it in a different way. It had a formula (rap bit, then Chester’s singing/shouting bit in a vaguely angsty fashion) and it damn-well stuck to it. Slag them to buggery as much as you like, ‘Hybrid Theory’ was an album worthy of any drunken party.